Perhaps there is a PCI memory card that I can install, giving the machine more than 2GB of memory. That alone would probably fix my slowness problem.

Besides any extra RAM, alternatively I have experienced the benefits of when Windows gets old and slow, to reformat the drive and reinstall Windows. I know it's a pain of a process, but it can make a significant difference.

Besides any extra RAM, alternatively I have experienced the benefits of when Windows gets old and slow, to reformat the drive and reinstall Windows. I know it's a pain of a process, but it can make a significant difference.

I agree that reinstalling Windows will speed up things.

And yes, it is a pain, with all the updates, service packs, software, etc., that you need to reinstall.

Therefore, if you ever need to reinstall Windows, you should consider also installing a new hard drive.

There are several advantages to installing a new hard drive:
* Hard drives eventually wear out; you're starting fresh with a new one, which means that your chances of a hard drive failure are extremely low.
* The old hard drive becomes a full backup of your system, since it will no longer be used.
* The newer drives are bigger and faster.

I'm finding that the 1 or 2 TB HD's are quite reliable & stable now for all sorts of data types.
But I'd avoid using anything at or over 1 TB as a boot drive. Also if you can, avoid partitions in favor of more internal drives.

Your best use out of a 3 or 4 TB drive will be in the storage of large file sizes, like video, where they can be laid down and seldom manipulated.
You should have at least 6 SATA ports on your mainboard, with at least 2 SATA 3.0 ports, I'd take advantage of these to maximize your hardware's
potential.

You would also do well to use the SATA 3.0 controllers exclusively for SSDs. You could do your video editing on one of the SSDs and store the final product
on a mechanical drive. I have an entire SSD dedicated solely to the video encoding of large multi GB video files. The speed is noticeably faster
than on mechanical drives alone.

PSUs
I would also go above and beyond what your calculated power needs are when choosing a power supply, especially if you have multiple HDDs,
and especially if you have chosen a potent GPU card. Go for the most modular PSU you can find, it'll go a long way when it comes to
decent cable management.

Overall System Cooling
Don't neglect this important aspect of the build, as it will come back to haunt you later on.
Choose an overall setup and case design that will easily accommodate your needs. You also might want to consider a closed unit liquid
CPU cooler. I'm finding mine invaluable in keeping my i7 six core 990X idling in the mid to upper twenties (C).

DRIVE IMAGINGInvest a little time and energy in a well thought out BACKUP regimen and you will have minimal down time, and headache.

And yes, it is a pain, with all the updates, service packs, software, etc., that you need to reinstall.

Therefore, if you ever need to reinstall Windows, you should consider also installing a new hard drive.

There are several advantages to installing a new hard drive:
* Hard drives eventually wear out; you're starting fresh with a new one, which means that your chances of a hard drive failure are extremely low.
* The old hard drive becomes a full backup of your system, since it will no longer be used.
* The newer drives are bigger and faster.

I like your thinking, Jim. You raise several good points about new hard drives.

I'm finding that the 1 or 2 TB HD's are quite reliable & stable now for all sorts of data types.
But I'd avoid using anything at or over 1 TB as a boot drive. Also if you can, avoid partitions in favor of more internal drives.

Your best use out of a 3 or 4 TB drive will be in the storage of large file sizes, like video, where they can be laid down and seldom manipulated.
You should have at least 6 SATA ports on your mainboard, with at least 2 SATA 3.0 ports, I'd take advantage of these to maximize your hardware's
potential.

You would also do well to use the SATA 3.0 controllers exclusively for SSDs. You could do your video editing on one of the SSDs and store the final product
on a mechanical drive. I have an entire SSD dedicated solely to the video encoding of large multi GB video files. The speed is noticeably faster
than on mechanical drives alone.

PSUs
I would also go above and beyond what your calculated power needs are when choosing a power supply, especially if you have multiple HDDs,
and especially if you have chosen a potent GPU card. Go for the most modular PSU you can find, it'll go a long way when it comes to
decent cable management.

Overall System Cooling
Don't neglect this important aspect of the build, as it will come back to haunt you later on.
Choose an overall setup and case design that will easily accommodate your needs. You also might want to consider a closed unit liquid
CPU cooler. I'm finding mine invaluable in keeping my i7 six core 990X idling in the mid to upper twenties (C).

Thanks again for giving me more to consider, CLiNT. I did get what appears to me to be a nice case and PSU-- both Rosewill. The case is feature rich (including a hot swap box on top), and features a rather user friendly cable management system. The PSU is a 650W gold rated. (Hope that's sufficient?) It's not fully modular, but at least I got a huge discount on it. I look to post the list of parts for my build within a couple days. For now, I've got to start a fresh post on my latest update-- I just ordered my Blue Ray burner.

I have an entire SSD dedicated solely to the video encoding of large multi GB video files. The speed is noticeably faster
than on mechanical drives alone.

For encoding as well? Any idea why that might be? I've not noticed anything like that on my setups, just faster loading, editing and more real-time scrubbing (usable). Mostly I don't have multi-core aware software either though; when I bring in Format Factory for the occasional job and set it to use all the cores full bore, its a treat to watch them all go to 100%.

I use multiple instances of VirtualDubMod for the heavier time consuming work, which is of course an old 32 bit program.
The program's themselves reside on a mech. drive, but it's irrelevant where the actual program resides.
These are not your conventionally installed programs. Their dll's & scripts reside on my primary "C" drive, which is also a SSD.

Read and write speeds make a significant difference on a SSD over mechanical drives, I find.
Because that's what VDM is doing; reading, writing, and processing. And multiple instances do it better.
After I'm done with the VDM operations they get ported to Nandub were they are processed and directed to where I store the final
product. (on a 3TB mech. drive)

I have a six core processor but I don't want them all running full throttle as I like to do other things while encoding.

Last edited by CLiNT; 2012-12-06 at 00:31.

DRIVE IMAGINGInvest a little time and energy in a well thought out BACKUP regimen and you will have minimal down time, and headache.

"3TB+ Infinity
3TB+ Infinity is not only breaking through the limit of traditional BIOS, but also enhancing the utilization of hard drives efficiently. In addition to supporting the latest 3TB hard drives, MSI 3TB+ Infinity technology can use the 3TB hard drive as boot disk when installing a 64-bit operating system. Compared to competitors, MSI 3TB+ Infinity is an industry-leading technology which substantially presents an advantage of development and application in the future.

Features
- All the latest 3TB hard drivers on the market can be supported
- Make the 3TB hard drive as boot disk when installing a 64-bit operating system"http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z77A-G.../?div=Overview
(towards the bottom of the page under the overview tab).

Does this mean I do not necessarily need to partition my 4 TB drive in Windows? Thanks!

As long as you have all the ingredients a drive above 2.2 terabytes needs in order to be a boot drive, then the limit far surpasses the current capacity of a drive. How much sense it makes to have only one massive partition used for the system is another story.

F.U.N.downtown-- I'm sorry, but I do not understand your first sentence, except for the fact that drive is not going to be a boot, but a storage drive. I also do not know what the value is in partitioning a storage drive?

The same rules pertain to a (3TB or more) drive's use for storage. 3TB+Infinity is mentioned predominately in post 23 and that mentions boot drive predominately so the response was directed more toward that, wherein you need a EUFI BIOS, a 64-bit OS with proper chipset support and a GUID partition table on the drive instead of a MBR partition table in order to use it (2.2 terabytes or more) as a boot disk.

I would still probably partition a 4 TB drive even if it was purely for storage but that's just a personal preference; there is no requirement for more than one if the above specs are met.

The Following User Says Thank You to F.U.N. downtown For This Useful Post:

The same rules pertain to a (3TB or more) drive's use for storage. 3TB+Infinity is mentioned predominately in post 23 and that mentions boot drive predominately so the response was directed more toward that, wherein you need a EUFI BIOS, a 64-bit OS with proper chipset support and a GUID partition table on the drive instead of a MBR partition table in order to use it (2.2 terabytes or more) as a boot disk.

I would still probably partition a 4 TB drive even if it was purely for storage but that's just a personal preference; there is no requirement for more than one if the above specs are met.

Ah... now I kind of get it. You sure do know your stuff, my friend. I guess I'm used to the idea of folders being natural "partitions" of sorts for separating data catagories. I wonder if partitioning does anything in terms of performance, like access time, or drive longevity, or something else of which I am completely naive.

If you are comfortable with folders alone, that's fine. Partitioning can actually slow a drive down a bit, especially when not utilized to any large percentage because a partition enforces an area for whatever data is designated for it and that won't be on the very fastest part of the drive any longer. The differences are miniscule but present. Also if there is active data writing/reading from/to each partition simultaneously and often, it can cause a lot of actuator thrashing between the two partitions. Also, partitioning is one's best guess at future needs, miss that guess by anything significant and you'll be cranking up the repartitioning software and making adjustments, in which some risk is always involved.

The only negative to a single partition is its massive size. Backup strategy is a bit more limited maybe. No big caveats.

I prefer the use of folders and more internal drives as opposed to partitioning. It cuts down on the amount of drive letters that partitions generate.

If you can add a few more internal drives to your setup you can effectively avoid having to use partitioning as each internal drive will be it's own partition.
For large capacity 3 or 4TB mechanical drives look into setting them up as GPT drives.
With the more internal drives you have the less relevant traditional partitioning will be.

DRIVE IMAGINGInvest a little time and energy in a well thought out BACKUP regimen and you will have minimal down time, and headache.